As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Personality modules (“PMs”) are provided in the basic input output system (BIOS) domain for rebranding of a server system (e.g., to rebrand the same server system from a computer manufacturer's brand name to an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) search provider's brand name) and alter some of the server BIOS behaviors, such as the default boot order, the thermal algorithm, etc. The current implementation for such server rebranding is data driven, with the personality module presenting pre-defined flags and data (e.g., a high definition logo bitmap). The server system BIOS caches the information from the personality module in a section of a serial peripheral interface (SPI) chip when the personality module is applied, and uses it to alter the personality of the server in the following boots. The personality module can be loaded using a securely authenticated module using a service processor such as an Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) available from Dell Products, LP of Round Rock, Tex. When implementing conventional Personality modules to rebrand a server system to an OEM, a new custom BIOS code must be created in order to alter existing BIOS behaviors to new BIOS behaviors for the OEM, or in order to replace existing pre-boot device drivers with different pre-boot device drivers for the OEM. Moreover, to address critical bugs a new official BIOS has to be released. For example, whenever there is microcode update from a processor manufacturer, the computer manufacturer must quickly release a corresponding BIOS update for existing deployed server systems that contains the new microcode, even if the deployed server system is approaching the end of its useful operating life.
In conventional methodology, drivers are either distributed to the OEMs in binary forms, or in source code form. The OEM then includes these modules in their BIOS build.